Molefe hits back at Madonsela for ‘being unfair’

Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe has fired a salvo at former public protector Thuli Madonsela, calling her “unfair and disparaging” in an address she gave on Monday.

Madonsela’s final investigation and report at the helm of the public protector’s office identified Molefe as a pivotal factor in the state-capture project.

Madonsela told the iDAfrica conference in Cape Town on Monday that her office used bank statements and cellphone and digital records to link and identify those captured by the Gupta family.

Since Madonsela’s report was released, Molefe has found himself in a political and business wilderness. He failed to secure a R30m pension payout from the power utility.

He maintains his innocence but has yet to clear his name.

Molefe said in an open letter to Madonsela that her report and subsequent address a year later placed him in a bind and he could not vindicate himself.

He said he was not given an opportunity to defend himself against any accusations.

Molefe would have “raised this and other discrepancies” had Madonsela given him “an opportunity to present my side of the story”.

He hoped that Madonsela “appreciates the egregious unfairness in making disparaging remarks without … affording affected parties the opportunity to make presentations and … making findings which make it enormously difficult for the affected to seek judicial review,” Molefe said.

He said it was “curious how the report and its document come together”.

“I can’t take it any further because the public protector’s report did not make findings. You can’t take it to court because there was no finding against me. It [the allegations] was insinuations and innuendo,” he said.

Molefe said Madonsela had made “insinuations with no legal standing” that have rocked his career for a year.

Madonsela could not be reached for comment. She is on record as having said: “The best way for Mr Molefe — and others mentioned in the report — to clear his name is to encourage that the commission of inquiry is set up as soon as possible. The worst-case scenario here is that they are found to be in contravention of the law.”

Molefe said Parliament had set up an inquiry with a list of people that they will call “but my name is not there. They just say that they would call me without providing further details.

“She [Madonsela] did not confront me with the information or give me a right of reply in line with the Public Protector Act,” he said.